Abstract
A biological system consisting of a population of cells suspended in a liquid substrate is considered. The general problem addressed in the paper is the derivation of the kinetic pattern of population growth as a statistical effect of a very large number of elementary interactions between a single cell and the molecules of nutrient in substrate. Solution of the problem is obtained in the form of equation expressing the population growth ratec as a function of substrate concentration,C s. The analytical expression derived is applied to a real bacterial population (Escherichi coli) and kinetic patterns are theoretically computed. The major findings, expressed roughly, without nuances, are: (i) the concentration of nutrient at the cell membrane,C c, can only be equal to either 0 (for theC s below some threshold valueC *) orC s (forC s>C *); (ii) the Michaelis-Menten-Monod kinetics observed in experiments is an artifact: the pure (not contaminated by foreign factors) dependence ofc onC s is actually such that the functionc=c(C s) has practically linear increase whenC s<C *, and is constant,c=c(C *)=const, whenC s>C *; (iii) the Liebig principle is strictly fulfilled: up to a feasible accuracy of observation, under no circumstances can population growth be limited (controlled) by more than one substrate component—replacement of a limiting component for another one is an instant event rather than a gradual process.
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Abbreviations
- c :
-
(1)
- a, b :
-
(3)–(4)
- μ,C s, λ,u :
-
Section 1
- ρ, ρs :
-
Point 2.1
- λ1, λ2 :
-
(5) (6), (9)–(10)
- λ0 :
-
Point 2.4
- σ, τ0 :
-
Point 2.1
- D, N, M,u ρ,u ∞ :
-
Point 2.2
- η,T, A, B :
-
(7)–(8)
- K, E, T o :
-
Section 3, (16)
- ω1, ω2, ω:
-
Section 3, (20)
- t min,t min,\(\bar \rho \),\(\bar x_0 \) :
-
(20), (21)
- β, α:
-
(29)
- C (0)s :
-
Point 4.2
- C (m)s ,c max :
-
Fig. 2
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Fuxman, Y.L. Reproduction rate, feeding process, and liebig limitations in cell populations—II. Bltn Mathcal Biology 57, 749–782 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02461850
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02461850